Contents

History

It was 135 years ago, February 6th,1882, that a small group met at a farm home at East Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue South to charter Vine Congregational Church. Funds were raised including lumber donated by Second Congregational Church, and a church was built on 21st Avenue just south of Lake Street. That church building survived until January 19th, 2017. Along the way it was home to not only the Vine Church and Hugnad Assn., but it also gave birth to two nationally known companies, Winget Mfg.,and Burma Shave.

In 1925, the building was purchased by the Marquette Trust Company and the primary tenant of the
building became the Burma-Vita Company. The Burma-Vita Company was a liniment (pain relief lotion)
manufacturing company organized by Clinton Odell and George Hamley, who are listed in city
directories as the manufacturing chemists.

In 1925, the company first developed their Burma Shave
product, a brushless shaving cream. In early 1926, Clinton Odell and George Hamley applied for a patent
to trademark Burma Shave; this patent was registered in 1927.

The Burma Shave product did not sell well until the owner’s son, Allan Odell, convinced his father to
promote the product with an advertising campaign that consisted of a series of six signs spaced along
the right side of the road. These signs ultimately became very popular once they incorporated rhyming
jingles that were catchy and memorable to drivers.

The first of the Burma Shave signs were put up in the fall of 1925 on Highway 61 and Highway 65 from
Minneapolis to Red Wing and Albert Lea. The original signs were more straightforward with typical
advertising, and did not rhyme until 1927, when the trademark rhyming jingle signs were first developed
and installed. By 1937, over 7,000 sets of the signs were located along highways throughout the country.
The advertising campaign was extremely successful and the company grossed over 3 million dollars per
year at its height. In 1933, signs also began to display public safety messages, particularly regarding safe
driving, in the typical rhyming jingle form.

In 1940, the Burma-Vita Company moved into new headquarters the company had built at 2318
Chestnut Avenue. After World War II, with such as increased speeds on the national interstate
highway system, the signs became less effective. Regulations restricting billboards on highways were also
developed around this time. The company also struggled to successfully advertise through the newly
emerging form of television ads. In 1963, theIn 1963, the company was purchased by Phillip Morris Inc. and the
Burma Shave signs were discontinued in 1964.[1]